Drug offers new hope for severe asthma sufferers

More than 100,000 people with severe asthma will benefit from a new drug on the NHS after its manufacturer agreed to lower the £840-a-dose price tag.

Mepolizumab is among a series of innovative treatments designed for one of the most debilitating forms of the disease, involving an inflammation of the airways.

Of the 5.4 million people with asthma in the UK, roughly 100,000 adults and children have the severe strain of eosinophilic asthma, linked to a particular white blood cell, and will be eligible for the new drug, under guidance published today.

The biological treatment could be life-changing to the many thousands of people who endure multiple asthma attacks and do not respond to other treatments, typically administered through a preventer inhaler containing steroid medicine.